I feel like I am a week behind in writing down the lessons I am learning from the universe. However, if one thing is clear – this is going to be a big year of learning lessons for me.
Last week, I was preparing for the new Early Career Experience person and working with HR to come up with a start date. After we agreed, HR told me they were going to put me in contact with the production leader, because his opinion was that this ECE should start in his area. I had been discussing this with HR for the past few weeks, but the production leader never got into direct contact with me, so I didn’t think it was anything other than a side comment or opinion. Wow, was I wrong! Anyway, when HR set up the group chat, my first emotion was frustration. I felt like something that I had invested my time and effort in trying to be swayed away by those who didn’t have as much passion for the topic of developing people as me. The whole reason I took over the ECE program last year was that I didn’t trust the organization to put the correct emphasis on development. While I was frustrated, I made sure to tell HR that I appreciated them going through the extra effort to put the production leader and me in contact. I was avoiding the contact to some extent. However, champions of good communication are hard to come by, so I made sure to thank her. She appreciated it.
What I did not like about this first contact with the production leader, is that it was over teams. So easy to get miscommunicated. The communication was something like this:
HR – “ECE will start next week, I am linking together Connor and the production leader to discuss where the person will start”.
Me – “The ECE will start in Engineering”.
Production leader – “Why are we changing this up? There needs to be some good logic as to why we would do it differently. The general manager and I spoke about the ECE helping with production topics.”
Me – “I have studied closely the past ECE rotation and believe that it’s most important for the person’s development to come into an environment that they are familiar with. This person is an engineer, and they studied to become an engineer. The best thing for us to do is present them with what ‘the real world’ looks like and then work on shifting their perspective that their abilities transcend the labels they give themselves, such as engineer in this case.”
Production leader – “I disagree entirely, I received an electrical engineering degree, and going into production was the best thing that happened to me. College focuses too much on theory and production would bring that theory into practice. I’ll discuss this with your manager and the technical leader.”
Looking back, cutting me out of this discussion is what led to, quite frankly, way too much wasted time between the production leader trying to lobby for what he wanted. From my understanding, he then went to my manager and called the technical leader three times just to discuss his perspective. I suppose it shows that my influence has already strengthened a bit if I was able to not get steamrolled away by the production leader.
This said I did my amount of venting and discussing my viewpoints to try and validate my thoughts. I started to sense that this was leading me to a big lesson. My first instinct was to try and compromise. I tried to suggest that this person should start in engineering, but maybe we can cut the rotation shorter or make sure that he goes to production right after. My manager also supported finding a middle ground. However, a lesson that was presented to me by the previous warehouse leader kept coming back to me, “When you are in a meeting with the leaders, you need to stick to what you believe is what we should be doing. Do not sway just because someone else has a different opinion. You have every right to your views because you are an equal amongst us.”
At the same time, I thought about a trip I went on with my general manager earlier in the year. He challenged me to think of my “lighthouse project”. Out of everything that I could see, the ECE program was the thing I was most passionate about. Helping other people find what they want to do is one of my greatest passions, and if that is all I did, I think I would be incredibly fulfilled in life. However, I recognize that the business doesn’t care about it nearly as much as me. So for me to get to a level to show other leaders the importance of development, I need to take on other work and push the business forward. Almost like a way to gain trust. Luckily my first attempt at the ECE program was a clear success, so I should be able to leverage that to some extent to back my views.
The production leader tried to claim that this was a sample of one though. Even though, it’s entirely not true. I have spent the last 5 years studying how people become leaders, so the program built for the ECE was based on my learnings of these observations.
The lesson was tearing at two parts of my core beliefs. On one hand, I really believed in my ECE program. However, I also believed in always striving for common ground. I think part of this finding a compromise comes from imposter syndrome. I sat back thinking ‘Who am I to say that what is best for the individual is what is best for the business?’ I should also challenge the production leader to know what is best for the business, but he has more experience and had the general manager’s agreement to give him the ECE, so the imposter syndrome flared up for me. I was torn up and losing a lot of sleep over it.
At some point, I realized that I was losing sleep because I was trying to compromise on something that shouldn’t be compromised on. The business always compromises. I needed to not. The moment I did, I became exactly what I critique of the business in that we don’t focus on development.
Luckily, I had a boost from a confidant. She validated that I am the one who believes in this and that the universe was challenging me to stand up for what I believe in. She pointed out that the production leader just wanted another resource and that he didn’t care for the development. From my conversation with her, I emailed my manager to explain to him that I couldn’t compromise. I wouldn’t preset the rotation for the new ECE until after he got to MT and we started on the plan. The previous ECE plan was flexible, as it should be. However, I shouldn’t set things in stone or commit to anything until after my intuition can guide me.
Part two of this story then occurs after speaking with the technical leader on a Friday evening. We spoke about how the production leader was doing a lot to try to convince others to back him, and the technical leader wanted to get my side of the story. The discussion surprised me at what lengths were going on in the background, but I told him why I was standing up for what I believe in. I told him how my lighthouse project could be anything because I am doing a lot of projects that are getting me a lot of visibility. However, the fact that I choose the ECE one to be it, should signify the importance I believe it has for the organization. The technical leader explained how my perception of my age can impact me negatively in this situation. I fear that people would hear what I am saying and just roll their eyes at a worthless crusade without taking into account what is best for the business. Even though I believe what is best for people is what is best for the organization, I understand why other leaders are not able to see that link as clearly. I do not want my beliefs to appear childish though. Imposter syndrome. The technical leader explained to me how he had a chat with one of his peers about me, and explained that I have a wisdom beyond my age. Luckily, this point helped me to deal with my imposter syndrome.
The next night, I woke up at 2 am and had a moment of clarity where everything fell into place for me. The production leader needed a body. I had wanted to get into his area, find the talent he has, and experiment trying to spark their fires in an environment that I know snuffs it out. I remembered the goal I had when I created my first E2E role. I wanted to be the bridge of communication between the departments, so I wanted to work more on establishing myself as the point of contact for issues. The day before, I spoke with my leader about how our vision of “One Team” for the organization was rated the lowest. By driving the communication forward, maybe I could find a way to get us closer to the One Team goal as well. So I knew what I needed to do. I needed to offer to take on the production leader’s project so that I could let the ECE follow the plan. I was also concerned that if I took the ECE away from the production leader when it came time for the ECE to go to his area, he would be set up to fail so that I would fail. For the sake of the ECE development, I could not let that happen either. So this solution of taking the project on for me, seemed like it became a win/win situation instead of a lose/lose. I was worried my manager would not be happy, because I needed to be getting rid of work, not taking more on. However, the universe put me at peace, so I knew I found the solution.
The next day was Saturday, so I went into the office. I was planning to talk to the technical leader about my idea and then circle back on Monday with my manager before presenting it to the production leader. However, when I got back to work from lunch, the technical leader told me the production leader was in the building and wanted to speak to me. I still hesitated to go talk to him, although, I did view it as a sign/ coincidence that we were all in the building (and quite literally the only ones). I spoke to the technical leader about how the production leader is an island. He thinks everything works against him since his area is one of the hardest areas to be in. We spoke about one of the technical leader’s product managers and how the production leader doesn’t view that person as a leader because they have never spoken to the production leader. This was an interesting point to stood out to me and directly caused me to go talk to the production leader. Ever since the earlier interaction where the production leader cut me out and went and spoke to literally everyone else, I figured he didn’t want to talk to me. However, what I was realizing, is that he does want to talk to people, even though he doesn’t do a great job at promoting it.
So I went to talk with him, and it all worked out. I had a moment earlier this week where I decided to email him with an update on what I am doing towards this project and he responded with appreciation. In my conversation with him, it’s clear he is starting to recognize the importance of good communication. He said all of his issues with HR were solved by avoiding teams and going to talk to them in person. So maybe I can help him process his lessons more mindfully and find a way to make a little change in his area too.
Time will tell.
